Mary Beth Aldosa

Diane Esdicul

By Patrick Downes | Hawaii Catholic Herald

St. Joseph School in Waipahu opened the new academic year in mourning. Two popular members of the faculty, a fifth grade teacher and the assistant principal, died in the span of two weeks, shortly after the start of school on July 24.
Over the course of the long illnesses of Mary Beth Aldosa and Diane Esdicul, students, faculty and staff had come together in hopeful surges of prayer, love and affection. This week, at Aldosa’s funeral on Monday and Esdicul’s on Wednesday, they gathered in sadness.

“We lost two very loving, committed people,” the principal Beverly Sandobal told the Hawaii Catholic Herald. “They were such exemplary models living and teaching as Jesus did.”

Mary Beth Aldosa was only 42. The fifth grade teacher — a graduate of Sacred Hearts Academy and the University of Hawaii-West Oahu — was blessed with an abundance of music talent and a beautiful voice. She helped start the music program at St. Joseph.

Last year she wrote a children’s Christmas play called “By the Star,” the story of three little stars who want to emulate the legendary Christmas Star. They learn they will only be that bright if they all shine together. The play is a message of selflessness, cooperation and teamwork illuminated by a string of Christmas songs.

St. Joseph students gave her play its theatrical debut last year.

Aldosa died on July 31, leaving a husband, three sons and a daughter. Her funeral was Aug. 20.

Diane Esdicul was 65 when she died on Aug. 12. Her birthday, July 10, was also her wedding anniversary. It was on her 25th wedding anniversary that she entered the hospital emergency room to begin the second of what would be her four final hospital stays. Her husband Julian recalled the irony of the date dawning on them when they filled out the hospital paperwork.

Julian and Diane were childhood neighbors on Kauai but they didn’t get married until Diane was 40. Born in the plantation town of Makaweli, Diane’s life took a detour after she graduated from Kauai High School to Manitowoc, Wis., where she joined the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity, the teaching order at St. Theresa School in Kekaha, Kauai.

Classroom assignments took Sister Therese Ellen (her religious name) to California, Wisconsin, an Indian reservation in Arizona and Hawaii, where she served as religious education coordinator at St. John Vianney in Kailua and religion coordinator at St. Joseph Parish, Waipahu.

She left the religious life in 1980, eventually reconnected with Julian in Honolulu, and after a year’s courtship, got married. A year later, John, their only child, was born.

Esdicul also taught at Sacred Hearts Convent and Cathedral School in Honolulu before joining St. Joseph School in Waipahu as the vice-principal.

She had a couple of master’s degrees, one in religious education, one in private school administration. Her service as a religious educator in Hawaii stretched over the course of 36 years, and extended to diocesan faculty groups and committees and mainland organizations.

The Esdiculs are parishioners at St. John Apostle and Evangelist Church in Mililani, but Diane’s funeral on Aug. 22 was at St. Joseph where she was much loved.

Here are some remembrances of  Aldosa and Esdicul written by colleagues, friends and a former student.

She taught from the heart

By Dallas Carter

If I had to list the top five most inspiring influences in my life, Mary Beth would be there. I can remember the very first time I met her. She spoke with such great love for her students and illuminated for me what it meant to teach from the heart. I did and still do look to Mary Beth’s way of teaching as a model for me.

Her last year at St. Joseph I shared a classroom with her. During our prep periods we had wonderful discussions about life, about faith, and about ministry. She shared with me her love of singing. She had an absolutely beautiful voice and had a talent to make our school choir sound angelic.

She shared this gift with everyone even until her last days. When I went to visit her at her home, just a week before she entered her heavenly reward, she was still singing beautiful songs about Jesus and the Blessed Mother. Her voice will forever be in my heart and mind.

Dallas Carter is on the faculty of St. Joseph School, Waipahu.

Anything was a possibility

By Beverly Sandobal

We have been very blessed and privileged to have Mary Beth Aldosa as a faculty member. She loved the children and was very passionate about her teaching ministry at St. Joseph School. She was proud of being a graduate of our school and instilled that pride in all the students she taught. Her enthusiasm, her smile and her positive attitude radiated in her classroom and across our campus. She always believed that anyone could achieve their dream if they put forth their best efforts. She believed anything was a possibility.

In December of 2006, Mary Beth wrote, produced, and directed our very memorable Christmas program. It was one of her many gifts that she gave to all of us. She loved reading and writing and wanted her students to be authentic writers. She was so proud of the publication of a book that was a compilation of students’ stories and illustrations.

Mary Beth also was instrumental in starting our music program. She wanted the students to have an opportunity to share their musical talent and to enjoy the gift of song. The students themselves were sometimes amazed at the beautiful harmony and melody that she was able to produce from them. Mary Beth was truly a gift to our school community.

Beverly Sandobal is the principal of St. Joseph School in Waipahu.

Her door was always open

By Glenn Medeiros

I have had the honor and privilege of knowing Diane Esdicul for the past five years as an administrator, mentor and a friend. As an administrator, she had a tireless work ethic. It was common to find Diane planning and meeting long after school was over — often late into the evening. Many of her weekends involved attending various school and parish functions.

As a mentor, Diane’s door was always open every time I needed words of wisdom to help guide me in my young teaching career. Her words were caring and inspirational, articulated with the knowledge of a true master at her craft.

Personally, Diane was a friend who loved to laugh and share stories of the past. She was devoutly religious and always willing to share her thoughts on what it meant to live the Catholic faith. When I needed her, she was always there to listen.

There is simply no way to replace someone as special as Diane. I can only hope to be half the person she was.

A former St. Joseph teacher, Glenn Medeiros now teaches at Maryknoll School.

She saw beauty in everyone

By Mariel Downes

Without Diane Esdicul, my junior high religion and social studies teacher, I probably would never have developed an aversion for over-the-counter pain medication. Like many teachers, Mrs. Esdicul often shared personal opinions with our class, including her belief that pain should be endured patiently, not blasted into oblivion with the closest pill. This lesson in mind, I tried to refrain from taking aspirin or ibuprofen for my headaches. I wanted to prove I could be tough like her. I am nowhere close.

Mrs. Esdicul used her immense strength and patience to bear with diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, and, eventually, the cancer that brought these struggles to an end. What she taught to her students, she demonstrated in life. I experienced her faith and dedication at each end of the spectrum, as a student at Cathedral School and a colleague at St. Joseph School.

To teachers and students alike, Mrs. Esdicul could be an intimidating figure. In matters of education she was no lightweight, demanding accountability in both learning and teaching. To this day I am able to recite God’s condemnation of the serpent in Eden, a Genesis passage she had us memorize for its significance in salvation history.

While transgressors quickly encountered the business end of Mrs. Esdicul’s strong voice, it was much more common to come across a joyous, high-pitched laugh wafting out of the vice-principal’s office at St. Joseph. She kept a well-stocked refrigerator and encouraged visitors to help themselves. It was true for everything. If she could share it — knowledge, art supplies, educational resources, jokes — they were yours. Everyone picked her brain and borrowed her notes and requested her skills as a calligrapher and artist. I am still amazed at how she could cut beautiful flowers from any scrap of construction paper, using no template or stencil.

Mrs. Esdicul could make flowers from all kinds of supposed scraps. She saw the beauty in the most unruly children and ornery adults. She was strict but fair and always kind. Her hugs were long and warm. Whatever a person had done, he or she left her presence knowing she truly believed in forgiveness.

It is not difficult, then, to picture the line of students, teachers and staff members that snaked around the front of St. Joseph Church as they waited patiently to offer Mrs. Esdicul a hug and their support at a healing service last spring. The entire student body prayed fervently for God’s blessing upon her, hoping he might give her the gift of good health. Tears were unavoidable and hugs were twice as long as usual as Mrs. Esdicul and her family warmly received each person. Yet God’s plan is not as we might wish it, and with her passing on Aug. 12, I believe he brought Mrs. Esdicul the most wonderful end to pain we can only hope to experience.

Mariel Downes is a teacher at Damien Memorial School.

Among the gifted, honored

By Louise Wong

As Catholic educators we knew, we experienced, we lived Diane’s dedication and commitment to Catholic education. Many times I was in awe of her intelligence, her wit, and the great ability she had for listening to and exploring ideas. She was truly among the gifted and honored teachers in our diocese. She was an exceptional teacher, administrator and mentor. When we talk about people who’ve made a difference, Diane Esdicul is certainly one of them. She has made a difference for so many students, teachers, administrators, counselors and many, many others.

As a friend for nearly 50 years, she was always warm, caring and fun-filled. These words don’t seem to capture this concept of friendship. It was warm, caring and fun-filled but it was more. Since Diane’s death, there have been so many wordless feelings that fill my mind and heart. She once told me that silence is sometimes so profound that words are not appropriate. She was right. She will continue to live in my memories and my heart.

So dear friend, thank you for sharing your life with me. I love you.

Louise Wong is an associate superintendent of Hawaii Catholic Schools.

Teaching as Jesus did

By Beverly Sandobal

Diane Esdicul was a humble servant leader who inspired everyone by generously giving her time and sharing her talents to serve God and others. So many children, parents, colleagues, and others in our diocese and in other states have been benefactors of her knowledge, her creativity, her enthusiasm, and her commitment and passion for her educational ministry.

She was an exemplary model of a woman who always kept God at the center of her life and who willingly accepted and embraced all that God ever asked of her. Besides her educational ministry, Diane also had a great love for and commitment to her husband Julian. She was also very proud of and treasured her wonderful son John.

Diane was a dedicated Catholic school educator and leader, and a devoted and loving wife, mother, sister, colleague and friend. She truly made a difference in the lives of everyone who knew her. She loved life and her family and friends. She lived each day to the fullest and had a radiant smile and laughter that filled a room with brilliance. Diane was a living testament of teaching as Jesus did and surely was God’s instrument to bringing the Kingdom of God to fulfillment on earth.

On Aug. 12, Diane’s journey on earth ended, but that day was the beginning of her everlasting life in heaven with God. We celebrate her life, and thank God for the blessing she has been in our lives. Although Diane is no longer physically present, she will always be remembered in the minds and hearts of every life she touched.